New scientific evidence that intermittent fasting has health benefits

On By A.P.In fastingLeave a comment

by Charles Q. Choi

Instead of eating three square meals a day, an eating schedule that involves “intermittent fasting” could help fight not just obesity but many related diseases of modern life, such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s, researchers say.

he advice given on fighting obesity usually focuses on consuming fewer calories and exercising more. The benefits of such foods as vegetables, fruits, nuts, fiber and fish, and the value of reducing or eliminating snacks are often also touted.

However, mounting evidence reveals that other key aspects of diet — when and how often people eat — can also play a major role in health. In fact, the most common eating pattern in modern societies of three meals daily, plus snacks, is abnormal from the perspective of human evolution, an international group of researchers wrote in an article published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

More and more research shows that intermittent fasting could have benefits, they said.

“Fasting alone is more powerful in preventing and reversing some diseases than drugs,” said Satchidananda Panda, an associate professor of regulatory biology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, California, and one of the co-authors of the article.

Ancient hunter-gatherers often ate only intermittently, the researchers noted in their article. This suggests that the ability to function at a high level both physically and mentally during extended periods without food may have been crucial in human evolution, and that the human body may have adapted to perform at its best with intermittent fasting.

Such intermittent fasting could consist of eating 500 calories or less either two days each week, or every other day, or not eating breakfast and lunch several days each week, the researchers said.

Prior research suggests that in animals, intermittent fasting can fend off or even reverse such illnesses as cancer, diabetes, heart disease and neurodegenerative disorders. Animal studies suggest that intermittent fasting provides these benefits by allowing the body to respond better to stress that might otherwise damage it. For example, fasting could starve tumors, reduce inflammation, or improve the removal of damaged molecules and other components of cells, the researchers said.

“Intermittent fasting helps the body to rejuvenate and repair, thereby promoting overall health,” Panda told Live Science.

In addition, the body may respond better to meals eaten at some times of the day rather than others because of the body’s circadian rhythms. In the years before artificial light, people depended on natural patterns of day and night, with food primarily eaten during the day and fasting occurring at night. This means that eating at certain times of the day may be healthier for the body’s metabolism — for example, in 2013, two studies in humans suggested that eating meals earlier in the day improved weight loss in overweight and obese people.

Panda said that it may be challenging for people to fast intermittently, instead of eating three meals every day. Eating breakfast is often promoted as a weight-control aid, but recent evidence has suggested it might not be, the researchers said.

Future research needs to further explore the benefits and drawbacks of different types of intermittent fasting in a variety of populations. “Its effectiveness in both preventing and reversing diseases, as well as interaction with standard medications for chronic metabolic diseases, should be tested in appropriate volunteer groups,” Panda said.

http://www.livescience.com/48888-intermittent-fasting-benefits-weight-loss.html

Measuring attention to angry faces may help predict depression relapse

On By A.P.In Depression, Medicine, Neuropsychiatric Disease1 Comment

Up to 80 percent of individuals with a past history of depression will get depressed again in the future. However, little is known about the specific factors that put these people at risk. New research suggests that it may be due to the things you pay attention to in your life.

Researchers at Binghamton University recruited 160 women—60 with a past history of depression, 100 with no history of depression. They showed each woman a series of two faces, one with a neutral expression and the other with either an angry, sad or happy expression. Using eye-tracking, they found that women with a past history of depression paid more attention to the angry faces. More importantly, among women with a history of prior depression, those who tended to look the most at the angry faces were at greatest risk for developing depression again over the next two years.

“If you’re walking around day to day, your attention will just be drawn to certain things and you’ll tend to look at some things more than others. What we showed is if your attention is drawn to people who appear to be angry with you or critical of you, then you’re at risk for depression,” said Brandon Gibb, professor of psychology at Binghamton University and director of the Mood Disorders Institute and Center for Affective Science.

“I think the most interesting thing about this is that we followed these women for two years, and the women who are paying attention to angry faces are the most likely to become depressed again, and they become depressed in the

shortest amount of time. So they’re at greatest risk,” said graduate student and lead author of the study Mary Woody. “We might be able to identify women who are at greatest risk for future depression just by something as simple as how they pay attention to different emotional expressions in their world.”

To address these types of attentional biases, computer programs and games are being used to retrain peoples’ attention. This approach has shown promise in the treatment of anxiety and is now being tested as a treatment for depression. Woody said that, by showing the important role that attentional biases play in depression risk, this new research highlights the promise of these types of attention retraining programs.

“It’s a very important first step in developing a new line of treatment for people who are at risk for depression and for who currently have depression,” Woody said.

“Some people might be able to use this instead of traditional therapy or could use it as an adjunct to traditional treatment,” Gibb added.
The study, “Selective Attention toward Angry Faces and Risk for Major Depressive Disorder in Women: Converging Evidence from Retrospective and Prospective Analyses,” was published in Clinical Psychological Science.

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-06-attention-angry-future-depression.html

73 year old man rides Ohio roller coaster for 12,000th time

On By A.P.In Ohio1 Comment

A 73-year-old man has taken his 12,000th ride on his favorite roller coaster at King’s Island amusement park in Ohio.

The park says Gary Coleman of Monfort Heights took the milestone ride in the front row of the Diamondback roller coaster on Monday.

The retired minister has made 493 trips to the theme park outside of Cincinnati since 2009, when the 230-foot steel roller coaster opened. It’s the tallest and fastest roller coaster at Kings Island and reaches speeds of 80 mph.

Coleman says he’s loved coasters since childhood. He says he plans to continue increasing his ride count as long as he remains healthy enough to do so.

http://bigstory.ap.org/urn:publicid:ap.org:30bce0dc44ca406bad2e5e0cb1781eac

Discarded pet goldfish are multiplying and becoming enormous

On By A.P.In Canada, carp, Fish, goldfishLeave a comment

If you have a goldfish, and you are kind of over that goldfish, to the point where you are now wondering whether it might be best to set that goldfish free, please rethink that decision.

That’s the request from the Alberta government, which is trying to get Canadians to refrain from dumping out their fish tanks into ponds. Because those ponds are filling up with those discarded goldfish, which are getting really, really big in the wild.

Or, as the CBC notes: “Goldfish the size of dinner plates are multiplying like bunnies.”

“It’s quite a surprise how large we’re finding them and the sheer number,” Kate Wilson, aquatic invasive species coordinator at Alberta Environment and Parks, told the broadcaster.

According to CBC News:

In one case, the municipality of Wood Buffalo pulled 40 of the domestic fish species from a stormwater pond.

“That’s really scary because it means they’re reproducing in the wild, they are getting quite large and they are surviving the winters that far north,” said Wilson.

“Their size is limited in the tank, but when you release it into the wild, that doesn’t exist anymore,” Wilson told The Post.

Like other species of carp, the domestic goldfish Carassius auratus will basically keep growing as long as water temperatures and food resources support it. There are obviously limits — you’re not going to accidentally create fishzilla if you overfeed your goldfish — but given a big body of water with tons of food and warm summers, a fish is bound to get supersized.

Then you end up with a bunch of goldfish bruisers competing with local fish for resources, and you better believe the fish you flushed will give native species a run for their money. Plus, some scientists say, goldfish feces might help support certain types of algae, leading to algal blooms that further disrupt the eco-system.

The CBC reports that a campaign designed to curb this trend, called Don’t Let It Loose, will “focus on educating Albertans about the dangers of releasing domestic fish into nature.”

If people are dumping their aquariums, Wilson explained, they’re also dumping the water it holds, which can carry disease and parasites. What’s more, the goldfish can survive in poor water conditions, she said, and “could be competing with our native species for both food and habitat.”

Award given for world’s ugliest dog

On By A.P.In Dogs, World RecordsLeave a comment

A 10-year-old mutt named Quasi Modo, whose spinal birth defects left her a bit hunchbacked, is the winner of this year’s World’s Ugliest Dog contest.

The pit bull-Dutch shepherd mix and her owner took the $1,500 prize Friday night, besting 25 other dogs competing in the contest that applauds imperfection, organizers said.

And though the name might make you think of the Quasimodo character in the Victor Hugo tale “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” this dog is female, not male as some thought.

Karen Spencer, marketing director for the Sonoma-Marin Fair, said she was notified Friday night by Quasi Modo’s owner that the world’s newly crowned ugliest dog is a she, and not a he.

Quasi Modo was abandoned at an animal shelter before being adopted by a veterinarian in Loxahatchee, Florida, according to her biography posted on the contest’s website.

Two Chinese crested and Chihuahua mixes named Sweepee Rambo and Frodo took the second- and third-place prizes, respectively.

An 8-year-old Chihuahua named Precious received the “spirit award,” honoring a dog and owner who have overcome obstacles and/or are providing service to the community. Precious, who is blind in one eye, is trained to monitor smells related to low blood sugar levels and alert her owner, a disabled veteran, of the problem, her biography said.

The contest, held at the Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds in Petaluma, is in its 27th year.

The dogs are scored by a three-judge panel in several categories, including special or unusual attributes, personality and natural ugliness.

http://bigstory.ap.org/urn:publicid:ap.org:0f37773b882c4941ae96d9d4287b69e3

Map of the most unusual way that people die in each of the United States

On By A.P.In CDC, deathLeave a comment

Every one of us will die someday, but not necessarily in an interesting way. Courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, here’s a map you can use to figure out just what kind of unusual causes of death occur in your state.

The CDC recently released an infographic of the “most distinctive causes of death” in each of the 50 states. The peer-reviewed paper, which was published on the CDC’s website, details which cause of death in each state sticks out when compared to the national average. The authors write that the results, which used data from 2000 to 2010, were intended to give a “more nuanced view of mortality variation” across the country.

Rod Wolfe in Chebanse, Illinois survives being struck by lightning twice

On By A.P.In IllinoisLeave a comment

The nickname “Lightning Rod” seems like a fair one for Rod Wolfe. He’s now survived two lightning strikes.

Wolfe was outside his Chebanse home on Saturday when everything suddenly went black. It turns out lightning hit a nearby tree then traveled into Wolfe’s body.

He ended up in the hospital with broken ribs and cardiac problems, but his doctor says it could have been far worse.

“Everybody says I am a lucky person and I say how can I be a lucky person? But they say yeah, but you survived twice,” Wolfe said.

Wolfe said this strike was far worse than when he got hit while working at a cemetery 18 years ago.

http://abc7chicago.com/weather/chebanse-man-survives-being-struck-by-lightning—twice/806066/

New words added to the Oxford English Dictionary

On By A.P.In dictionary, language, lanugageLeave a comment

The Oxford English Dictionary is a historical dictionary, which means that when its editors add a phrase such as hot mess to their reference—as they did this week—they add every definition of the word they can find. The editors are like detectives, following phrases back to times when Anglo-Saxons were jabbering about peasants and overlords.

The quarterly update reveals that in the 1800s, for instance, a “hot mess” was a warm meal, particularly one served to a group like troops. In the 1900s, people used hot mess to refer to a difficult or uncomfortable situation. And in the 2000s, one used it to refer to Amy Schumer (or, as they put it, something or someone in extreme confusion or disorder).

Twerk, another new addition, might have been made famous by Miley Cyrus and a foam finger in 2013, but the editors traced its meaning back to 1820, when twirk referred to a twisting or jerking movement. The precise origin of the word is uncertain, the editors say, but it may be a blend of twist or twitch and jerk. Their definition: “To dance to popular music in a sexually provocative manner, using thrusting movements of the bottom and hips while in a low, squatting stance.”

Here is a selection from the hundreds of words OED just added to its ranks, along with the earliest known usage and context provided by TIME.

autotune (v., 1997): to alter or correct the pitch of (a musical or vocal performance) using an auto-tune device, software, etc. The word has meant “to tune automatically” since 1958, when people were tuning radio transmitters rather than hilarious local news interviews.

backronym (n., 1983): a contrived explanation of an existing word’s origin, positing it as an acronym. When some guy tries to say that golf is an acronym of “gentlemen only, ladies forbidden,” that is a backronym (and clever nonsense). It more likely comes from the Dutch word kolf, which describes a stick used in sports.

boiler room (n., 1892): a place used as a center of operations for an election campaign, especially a room equipped for teams of volunteers to make telephone calls soliciting support for a party or candidate. This phrase has been used to describe an actual room that contains boilers, as on a steamship, since 1820.

bridge-and-tunnel (adj., 1977): of or designating a person from the outer boroughs or suburbs of a city, typically characterized as unsophisticated or unfashionable. The phrase was first used by Manhattanites to describe people they thought unworthy of their island.

cisgender (adj., 1999): designating someone whose sense of personal identity corresponds to the sex and gender assigned to him or her at birth. This word exists to serve as an equal and complement to transgender.

FLOTUS (n., 1983): the First Lady of the United States. This is a true acronym, which appears to have been first applied to Nancy Reagan.

fo’ shizzle (phr., 2001): in the language of rap and hip-hop this means “for sure.” Shizzle, as a euphemism for sh-t, dates back to the ’90s. One can also be “the shizzle,” which is the best or most popular thing.

half-ass (v., 1954): to perform (an action or task) poorly or incompetently; to do (something) in a desultory or half-hearted manner. One can also insult someone by calling them an “ass,” referring to the horse-like creature who has appeared in stories as the type who is clumsy or stupid since the time of the Greeks.

koozie (n., 1982): an insulating sleeve that fits over a beverage can or bottle to keep it cold. Fun fact: that little cardboard thing one slips around a cup of coffee to keep it from burning one’s hand is known as a zarf.

Masshole (n., 1989): term of contempt for a native or inhabitant of the state of Massachusetts. This is what is known as a blended word, which Lewis Carroll called portmanteaus, naming them after a suitcase that unfolds into two equal parts.

sext (n., 2001): a sexually explicit or suggestive message or image sent electronically, typically using a mobile phone. Back in the 1500s, when someone referred to a “sext,” they were talking about a Christian worship ritual that involved chanting around midday.

stanky (adj., 1972): having a strong (usually unpleasant) smell. The OED editors offer the comparison to skanky, which means unattractive or offensive, as well as janky, which refers to something that is untrustworthy or of poor quality.

http://time.com/3932402/oxford-dictionary-fo-shizzle-masshole-hot-mess/?xid=newsletter-brief

Edible Marijuana Labels Often Have Potency Wrong, Study Says

On By A.P.In cannabis, Drugs, marijuana, Medicine, Michael MooreLeave a comment


An assortment of edible marijuana products. Most edibles in a recent study inaccurately described the amount of THC on their labels.

By CATHERINE SAINT LOUIS

An analysis of 75 edible marijuana products sold to patients in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles found that labels on just 17 percent accurately described their levels of THC, the main psychoactive ingredient, researchers reported Tuesday.

Sixty percent of the products had less THC than their packages advertised, and 23 percent of them had more THC than claimed.

“We need a more accurate picture of what’s being offered to patients,” said Dr. Donald Abrams, the chief of hematology and oncology at San Francisco General Hospital. He was not involved in the new study, which was published in JAMA.

“What we have now in this country is an unregulated medical marijuana industry, due to conflicts between state and federal laws,” Dr. Abrams said.

After ingesting marijuana, patients experience the maximal high one to three hours later. (It is felt within minutes after smoking.) Inaccurate labels complicate the consumption of marijuana for medical purposes.

Products with too little THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, may fail to deliver symptom relief to those with debilitating conditions like chronic pain, and those with too much may overwhelm users.

Some of Dr. Abrams’s older cancer patients have tried edibles, he said, because they do not want to smoke marijuana. But some have eaten too much THC, with unpleasant results such as severe anxiety.

In the new study, cannabis candy, drinks and baked goods from 47 brands were tested by the Werc Shop, a laboratory with outposts in California and Washington State.

The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine paid for the study except for the cost of the testing, which was covered by the Werc Shop. The company’s chief executive, Jeffrey Raber, is a study author.

Some discrepancies were notably large: In one case, a product had just three milligrams of THC even though its label claimed 108, said Ryan Vandrey, the study’s lead author and an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The researchers declined to name specific manufacturers or products. “I didn’t want to get sued,” Dr. Vandrey said.

“The point is not to say, ‘Hey, X medical marijuana company, you’re bad,’ ” he added. The more serious issue is that “we don’t have the kind of quality assurance for edibles that we have for any other medicine.”

The analysis found some geographical differences: The likelihood of having edible medical marijuana with more THC than advertised was higher in Los Angeles, while the likelihood of having it with less THC than labeled was greater in Seattle.

The researchers also tested each product for cannabidiol, or CBD, a nonpsychoactive ingredient of marijuana that is being studied in purified form as a possible aid to children with intractable epilepsy.

Forty-four products had detectable levels of CBD, though only 13 disclosed CBD. Nine had less CBD than labeled; four had more.

One limitation was that just one laboratory performed the analysis, medical and lab experts cautioned. Methodologies and results vary from lab to lab.

Some variability in test results is routine in this sort of analysis, so the researchers classified labels as accurate if the THC content was within 10 percent of the claimed levels.

Still, Remy Kachadourian, a chemist who has analyzed edible marijuana, suggested that 10 percent variability was too narrow.

“Plus or minus 15 percent is acceptable, and not only in my lab, but other labs in Colorado,” said Dr. Kachadourian, a senior scientist at CMT Laboratories in Denver.

Even though 23 states and the District of Columbia have medical marijuana programs, the federal government does not recognize marijuana as medicine and considers it illegal.

“When that changes,” Dr. Abrams said, “we’ll see the industry rushing to standardize dosing, as well as laboratory testing of products.”

Thanks to Mike Moore for bringing this to the attention of the It’s Interesting community.

FDA grants fast-track status to promising new drug for treating the cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia

On By A.P.In brain, cognition, Medicine, Neuropsychiatric Disease, Psychosis, schizophrenia1 Comment

Forum Pharmaceuticals announced that the FDA has granted Fast Track designation to encenicline for the treatment of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia.

Forum recently completed patient enrollment for the COGNITIV SZ phase 3 clinical trial program which includes two randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies. The program is evaluating the safety and efficacy of two oral doses of once-daily treatment with encenicline as a pro-cognitive treatment compared to placebo when added to chronic, stable, atypical antipsychotic therapy in people with schizophrenia.

Primary endpoints of the trials include effect on cognitive function and effect on clinical function. The two global 26-week trials enrolled a total of more than 1,500 patients at approximately 200 clinical sites.

Encenicline is an orally administered, selective, and potent agonist of the alpha 7 receptor found in hippocampal and cortical neurons involved in cognition.

In a phase 2 trial, which was sponsored by Forum and results of which were released in March, 319 schizophrenia patients were randomized to receive either encenicline in one of two doses daily, or a placebo, for 12 weeks.

Patients in both encenicline dose groups showed significant cognitive improvement based on various measures, according to a presentation made at the 15th International Congress on Schizophrenia Research. In a subset of 154 patients, the improvement was greater in the higher-dose group (0.9 mg) than the lower-dose cohort (0.27 mg).